::READERS REVIEWS::

Could be the best - No less an authority than Elmore Leonard has called this the best crime book ever. I have to agree. More of us crime novelists, both novice and seasoned, have gone to school on this book than any other. Check out how Higgins drives the plot forward with dialogue--dialogue that is both street-tough and brilliant.Speedo

EDDIE COYLE STILL HAS FRIENDS AFTER 36 YEARS - The Friends of Eddie Coyle still remains a classic because George V. Higgins knew how to write dialogue. His voice is as fresh today as when this crime novel first hit the shelf back in 1972. It must've been a screenwriter's dream when Paul Monash was asked to adapt this novel for the film which Peter Yates directed. This Henry Holt edition also includes an introduction from Elmore Leonard. Leonard explains how George V. Higgins taught him, as a writer, how to get into scenes without wasting time and how he realized criminals could appear to be ordinary people and have the same concerns as the rest of us.

This book is still a bleak, fascinating read.

I had also been searching for the film for years (it was not available on VHS or DVD) but thanks to Amazon Unbox, I finally got a chance to see this classic with Robert Mitchum. Highly recommend!!!

Astounding - I reread this one after maybe twenty years; it's as amazing now as it was then. Nobody could write dialogue like Higgins. Gritty as hell, dark, violent, tremendously funny, incredibly inventive, all served straight with no chaser, like a shot of Bushmill's. A landmark novel.
The Mitchum film was pretty good, too.

Very realistic. Natural (movie) - I have not read the book but just saw the movie starring Robert Mitchum. I was spellbound by the realism without an over abundance of bad language. Yes there is cussing but not like the modern day filth.

Mitchum was the star but he was just one of the characters in this movie. His wife was not a glamour queen. Surprise ending to a movie that developed characters and realism of the underworld.

A Dated Groundbreaker - A seminal book in the world of crime fiction, Higgins' 1970 debut placed maximum emphasis on creating realistic dialogue for the criminals and police and letting that carry a fairly slender plot along. The story concerns a smalltime hood named Eddie Coyle and a loose ring of associates. He's sweating because he's facing a two year stretch, and he can't handle any time at his age (45). The question is, who's he going to throw to the cops in order to duck that time? The story and its resolution are very much in keeping with the dark tone of the early '70s when the nation was realizing Vietnam was unwinnable and hard drugs were getting more and more prevalent, think of films like The French Connection, Badlands, or High Plains Drifter. (I've not seen the 1973 film version of the book, starring Roger Mitchum as Eddie Coyle.)

The book has been greatly lauded for its simplicity, dialogue, and realistic characters. However, my own reading was that everyone in the book (men, women, law, criminals) spoke more or less the same clipped wise guy talk as everyone else, and not only that, but other than talking about the "Broons" (Boston's pro hockey team, the Bruins), there's little that differentiates the speech from that of countless New York and Brooklyn gangsters. So much so that one occasionally has a hard time keeping track of who is who. So, maybe it was revolutionary to reveal the inner woes of criminals back in 1970, but read today, the book lacks the punch it must once have held.

A Discovery - What a treat to discover and read this book after being a fan of Tarantino's "Jackie Brown". I came away with new respect for both the author and the film-maker.

It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This - There are so many writers in this genre who should have long ago read this book. That way the truly good writers would have learned from Mr. Higgins, and the others would have realized that they shouldn't have even tried. The dialogue is a masters' class in writing dialogue. Some books age better than others, and this one will be enjoyed for many years to com.

The crime writers' crime writer - No one writes dialogue like George V. Higgins, using it so seamlessly to unfold his story. This is his first published novel, and it hits like a horseshoe in a boxing glove. His protagonist, Eddie Coyle, is a small-time crook at the end of his rope, and Higgins makes us feel for the guy as if he were King Lear. It's no wonder so many crime writers (me included) look to him as one of the masters. No thrills and spills, no pyrotechnics. Just the hard reality of a man whose been dealt too many bad hands. (No pun intended--you'll understand when you read the book.) If you're looking for an easy beach read, this isn't it. This book should be savored. It will hold you captive to the last page and stay with you for a long time.